The annual Valhalla Regatta was held at the Valhalla Quarry in Marathon, Florida. There were 11 entries representing the South Florida Model Sailing Club and the Marathon Sailing Club in the Florida Keys. Ideal weather conditions greeted the sailors with E- SE, 10-12k winds and 78 degree temps. Racing started at 10:30 and 12 races were completed with a lunch break in the middle. It was hotly contested racing with Tony Gonsalves and Christian Flebbe ending up in a tie for first place with the tie breaker going to Tony with 5 first place finishes. The top 3 skippers received awards.

The MMYC CR-914 Fleet, the Officers and Members of Marblehead Model Yacht Club cordially invite you to the 2013 CR-914 Class Region 1 Regatta. Held Sunday, June 23 (click image at right to view and save PDF form registration).

This event is roughly 2 months away from today, so please disperse this document through your local club, as there is plenty of time to register and make your plans to compete at Redds!

Also keep in mind that MMYC will host the CR-914 National Championships. An invitation will follow later (roughly around the R1 date) but please save the date for August 23-25.

MMYC News & NotesThe MMYC Schedule trucks-on. This coming weekend will bring our first scheduled race for the East-Coast 12 Meter Class @ 1pm on Saturday, and race #3 in the CR-914 Red Robin series on Sunday. Charge em up! The CR-914 has experienced a great turnout thus far this season, with 11 skippers competing this past weekend.

For up-to-date results for all completed races on MMYC's schedule through the season, please see our Facebook page.

Marblehead Class Photo DatabaseAnd in one final bit of news, we have started a photo-database of the Many, Many Marblehead Designs. This will show Many forms of the M through the years viewable on the MMYC Facebook Page. Be sure to also check out the twelve designs uploaded thus far.

On March 3rd, 2013 we held our first leg of the CR 914 South Florida Series. Ten skippers with boats models ranging from 1995 to 2012 brought their boats to the nice sailing spot found by the members of the Marathon Sailing Club located at the Valhalla Quarry, just north of Marathon and a couple of miles south of Duck Key. Captain Colin Parker of the Marathon Sailing Club held a wonderful evening get together on Saturday for all sailors.

On Sunday morning all sailors started to arrive at the excellent site and while having some warm coffee with doughnuts all started to get the boats ready for some sailing. The wind was announced at about 20mph out of the NW, but luckily due to the protected inlet, this was not really felt there, only the temp was slightly on the low end for South Florida lower 60s.

Seven races where completed and it was really a great experience! Hopefully this will be the start of a nice tradition here in winter and open to all from the North who would like to escape from the cold winter. The next stop will be March 17th at C.B. Smith Park for the 6th Annual CR 914 Midwinter Regatta.

At this moment we have 3 fleets in the area. One Snow Bird fleet that is active from November to about End of March in Vero Beach, with the shaker Waldo Johnston on board. they sail between 6 and 10 boats having about 12 in the area. They will host the 3rd part of the South FL series on March 24th.

Then there is a fleet in formation with now 4 boats in the Florida Keys run by Michael Bier and Colin Parker, they are working on getting the Marathon Model Sail club back up and the CR 914 is one of their boats. They will be hosting the 1st leg of the South FL series on March 3rd.

And us in the South Broward Model Sailing Club with about 8 to 10 active boats and 4 to 6 that are in hand of sailors who we are trying to get back. Besides we are now almost ready to get a small Fleet order to Dave for the new boats. This will put for newcomer's 2 or 3 boats on the market for our area. We try to keep the boats here to increase our fleets.

Well I FINALLY received the first US Made CR-914 Hull today and full production will begin tomorrow. The first hull is very, very nice and the surface finish is the best I have ever seen. The only change I had them make was to increase the hull thickness to get to my required minimum thickness which they tell me should not be a problem.

I hope to travel up to NJ on Thursday to pick up the first 100 or so hull so that I can prepare them for the Chicago boat show which starts January 24th.

I will need to cut the hatch and rudder plate opening on my CNC Router but that should not be a problem.

This has been a LONG (10 month) process but the light is finally shining at the end of the tunnel. Thank you for your patience and support to get me thru this.

Just had to get one more in before we officially wrapped-up the season. I guess the headline sums it up – that wily old salt Howie McMichael won another season championship for the Larchmont Model Yacht Club. Howie’s 0.726 rating nipped Julian’s all-time best season score of 0.710 with Bizzy and yours truly just off that pace. Some notes on the season’s performances before you see the results.

Howie – again bullet proof – we’re going to have to put out a contract on his thumbsJulian – Really consistent this season and we’ll miss him next winter when he’s in MDBizzy – Right in the hunt and winning tons of days...but, alas, he’s in Europe next winterButtons – Glad that Bizzy and Julian will be gone next year...now needs to relocate HowieDavid G – Really fast this year and made a tremendous contribution to the fleet and classPeter B – Finally has his thumbs working and won more than his share of racesRocco – Sails a different boat each week, nobody has more fun and is a better shipmateRick – Sailed much better than his scores show. Longtime member who has improved greatly these past few seasonsDave F – Turned-up the speed this year and had great tactics to win a bunch of races, tooNick – The biggest heart on the dock and if he could only get this boat to keep working he’d give Howie a run for his moneyHector – The only sailor in the world with that name, a young’en who brought new life, life jackets and a sense of youth back to our aging fleetJohn – Boy, this guy could write a book on frustration...but when he’s dialed in, nobody has a faster boat. He just needs Hector’s eyesDick – This guy redefines wily with his quiet approach on the dock and blistering speed. When he get ahead of you, he’s hard to catchTom – No longer “wrong way Wey,” Tom has really stepped-up his sailing skills and was in the thick of things all season longJoe – One of this year’s newbees, Joe greatly added to our fellowship on the dock, gave us the opportunity to save his boat from sinking a few times and entertained us with his Ester Williams impression...only to be encouraged to keep sailing with us next year.Hank – Only came out a bit this year but has had perpetual savvy and (ok, I’ll use that word again) wiliness and we missed not having him around more.Peter K – Graced the docks for a quartet of Saturdays, rebuilt his boat and showed that, as one of the fleet’s founders, he still has his chops (or thumbs) when it comes to RC sailingPaul – Getting better every year, always there early but just needs to get the boat to go where he thinks it should be going...not the only one, however, with that problem.Jim and Stu – Then there are these two guys from American. The good news is that they come to sail with us when they can. The better news is that they never come enough to qualify because, if they did, they’d eat our lunches week in and week out.Ruth - Last but clearly not least. Without our sister, girlfriend, wife, surrogate mom and amazing one-person Race Committee, LMYC sailing would not be as much fun, as well run, as heartfelt, and as glorious as it has been all these many years. Our Ruthie has graciously given to all of us countless Saturday mornings and we all thank her for that gift and look forward to her saying, once again, "thirty seconds."

COME JOIN THE FUN!!

The CR-914 Regatta is part of the larger Leukemia Cup fundraising event featuring the “Big Boats” of Newport. Our racing will be held right at the Harbour Court dock (protected side) — enabling prospective CR-914 sailors to watch the fun. Racing will start at 10:00 AM and end at 2:00 PM. Attractive commemorative awards will be handed out shortly after sailing is over.